NPR suspends the use of Twitter in hissy fit over ‘Government-funded Media’ label

National Public Radio continues to throw a hissy fit over Twitter designating the government-funded broadcaster as “U.S. state-affiliated media.”

On Wednesday, NPR announced that it would suspend the use of its Twitter account “because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility.” The irony here is that in the eyes of many, NPR has little credibility outside the elite media bubble.

Twitter has tagged the NPR Twitter account as “Government-funded Media,” which is the same label the Elon Musk-run company applies to the BBC, the national broadcaster of Britain — the Chief Twit tweeted his approval, saying: “Seems accurate.”

“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,” Isabel Lara, NPR’s chief communications officer, said in a statement.

“We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence,” Lara added.

NPR’s chief executive John Lansing sent a letter to staff Wednesday morning making them aware of the move, according to The New York Times.

“Actions by Twitter or other social media companies to tarnish the independence of any public media institution are exceptionally harmful and set a dangerous precedent,” Lansing wrote.

“NPR operates independently of the U.S. government. And while federal money is important to the overall public media system, NPR gets less than 1% of its annual budget, on average, from federal sources,” NPR reporter Bill Chappelle reported last week.

While the decision is sure to get plenty f media attention, journalists all but ignored Fox News’ 16-month boycott of Twitter under old management, after the home address of host Tucker Carlson was posted on the platform in 2018.

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:

Tom Tillison

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